sprink49

I restored this car back in the '90's and used to have a lot of fun with it. It was an original Z/28 but I bought it with out the engine. I built a 406 Small Block that made 435 HP at 5600 RPM and 400 ft. lbs torque from 1800 RPM to 4250 RPM. It had the muncie M-22 4 speed with a 3:73 12 bolt posi. The car weighed 2800 lbs. With street tires this car would run low 12's~ high 11's at about 115 MPH.

One night I was out "on the hunt" when a local Grand National hero pulled up along side. The driver said "Sure is a pretty car...too bad those cars didn't run any better than they did...they were over rated." I said "Yea...they don't run nearly as crappy as a V6 Buick." He looked over and said "You want a lesson?"...I said "Ok...I'm in the mood...but be gentle" So at 1:00 AM the light turned green and I just slowly let the clutch out and stayed in the primaries and waited to hear that turbo whoosh. As soon as I did I gave it all of that Holley 750 double pumper. I felt the left front rise enough to feel the steering get loose. I kept my right foot on the floor and pumped my left foot while grabbing gears. I would shift that car at 5500 because with that torque curve the engine just wanted another cog. I didn't get all the way through 3rd before I pulled over in his lane in front of him . After all I had 10 car lengths on him!!
He followed me to all night drive in where all the car nuts hang on the weekends. I opened the hood and explained what was going on...he was still amazed!! This was a sharp car. I put 12 coats of Ditzler Deltron on it with 12 coats of clear. It was hand wet sanded between coats withh 2000 grit. It was sharp. I sold it to a guy in Orlando in '95...I keep looking for it to show up on PINKS TV. This is one of the last pics I took...it was a lot of fun.

newton22

Why did you sell it? I friggin love first generation Camaros!

As much as I like Camaros, I also like GNs, especially the ultra rare GNX. Awesome kill though and awesome awesome Camaro.

sprink49

Bought a bigger house...and it turned out to be a good move but I still miss that car

cdiken

Stock GN's were only like 240 HP. Fast for the 80's, that's about it.

I think my Carlsson CDI is probably a tad faster than a stock GN.

The GN is a very collectable car, however. The closer to stock the better in terms of collectable value. A low-mileage untampered, unmolested, original GNX is big bucks today.

In college I stuffed a built 403 olds into my first car, an 81 Toronado. Lowered final drive ratio. Super-duper sleeper, it surprised a few GN's by keeping up with them at the local stoplight derbies. Ate the primitive ricers for breakfast.

sprink49

I think what intrigued me most in the beginning were the "Art Carr Racing" decals in the rear quarter windows. He had the boost dial up kit and the Art Carr tuned exhaust set up. I think he was running boost at about 14~15 psi.I remember he told me he was running high 7's in the 1/8 mile...had not run at a 1/4 mile track. He was just a little bit beyond 240 HP.

merc655

For a few hundred dollars, the GNXs can be made damn fast. For a few grand, you can make 'em as fast as you want.

Nice kill by the way. I bet you wish you had kept onto that ride, you should see what they are bringing at Barrett-Jackson, even if it isn't all original but that thing does have high hp... wow what a car.

King320

Nice car. Sprink49, your sig is way to freaking big.

m3_eater

Sorry to correct you, but Buick underrated the output of those cars for insurance reasons. They were actually around 275-285 HP stock - Car and Driver did a piece on this back in the day.

Car and driver, 4/86:
Buick Grand National 0-60 4.9, standing start 1/4 mi 13.9sec @98 mph



Car and Driver's testers suspected that the turbo 3.8 was putting out much more than its advertised power. When questioned, Buick's engineers more or less admitted that the 235 horsepower rating was artificially low for reasons we can only guess at. It may have had something to do with insurance rates, or that perhaps the corporation didn't want to upstage the Corvette's 230 horsepower, or both. Top speed was limited to 124 - they claimed because of tire ratings.

All of that said, this was still not that fast in today's terms - and most GNs actually ran low 14's stock. That is, unless you had a fire-breathing GNX.

Jakpro1

Just be careful my brother, Grand Nats are usually fairly deadly.

Kenny Bell mods make them so the Mexican hat dance. Nice kill though!!

sprink49

Oh Yes!!! My buddy Jim Thomas in Birmingham at All Track Performance used to build 3800 CC Buick motors based on the "Indy" block with twin turbos running 27 psi boost. They were good for about 950 HP flywheel and would stand a full body Grand National straight up!! The surprising thing was how strong those motors were on the bottom. The cranks and rods were over designed with a safety factor of 10. I have seen slightly modified GNX cars give 911 Turbo's fits on the street.

If you look back at the top dog muscle cars of the '60's, '70's and '80's...the hot Buicks were always at the top!!

AMG_55

awesome camaro

Brian Felts

My bone stock 89 TTA ran 13.3 on Old Gatorback tires and limited traction. That does not equate into 250 Hp.....GM made them downgrade the 3.8 Turbo so they could sell some vettes of that year. The TTA would beat the vette every time down the track. The smallest of upgrades put us in the high 12's with spending less than $800.00 we had # 1053


However a 406 small block will be hard to beat with a good set of gears....We have taken many and produces gobs of Torque and still so streatable you can cruise @ 1500 rpm all night long.

Brian